Impact of a national donor vigilance system: An example of improved donor health by reduction of delayed bleedings after donor plasmapheresis

Background and Objectives: In Denmark, all blood banks use the same standardized donor vigilance system, enabling comparisons of adverse reactions across the country's five regions. At several collection sites, a compression bandage is applied over the venipuncture site after donation. In this study, we investigate whether using a compression bandage is more effective than using a non-compression bandage in preventing delayed bleeding. Materials and Methods: Data were collected from four of the Danish regions (data from the fifth region were incomplete) between 2021 and 2024 using the Danish donor vigilance system. In one region, compression bandage has been used consistently since 2021, whereas three other regions transitioned from non-compression bandages to compression bandages at different times during the study period. Results: Data from 426,250 donor plasmaphereses were analysed; 160,547 (37.7%) were collected without the compression bandage and 265,703 (62.3%) were collected with the bandage. A significantly lower number of delayed bleeding events occurred when the bandage was applied post-donation (0.3% vs. 0.04%, respectively, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The implementation of the compression bandage resulted in a significant decrease in delayed bleeding in Danish plasma donors. Using a compression bandage may be an easy and cost-efficient way to improve donation safety.